Beowulf

Beowulf is a heroic poem in Old English alliterative verse. At 3182 lines, it is far more substantial than any similar work in the language. The poem is untitled in the manuscript, but has been known as Beowulf since the early nineteenth century.

It is sometimes claimed to be the oldest surviving piece of text in what is an identifiable form of English, but this is highly disputable. The surviving manuscript dates to about 1000 AD. The poem itself is almost certainly older, but there is only circumstantial evidence for the date of its composition. Some experts suggest circa 800 AD on linguistic grounds. If that date is correct, there are older English texts.

The poem is a work of fiction, but it mentions in passing some people and events that were probably real, and probably from approx 450 to 600 AD in Denmark and southern Sweden. The story may have been taken to England by Danish migrants in some form (probably oral) and translated to English or rewritten at a later date in England.

The language used is called Old West Saxon, which is a dialect of Old English. It is one of the ancestor languages of modern English, but the language has changed so much over the years that most modern English speakers would not recognise it as their own language.

It is known only from a single manuscript, kept in the British Library. It is only partially legible after being fire damaged in 1731.

The story traces the life of a heroic king called Beowulf and his great battles with the monster Grendel, then Grendel's mother, and finally with a firebreathing Dragon in the battle which costs Beowulf his life. It is fundamentally a depiction of a pagan warrior society, in which the relationship between the leader, or king, and his thanes is of paramount importance. This relationship is defined in terms of provision and service: the thanes defend the interest of the king in return for material provisions: weapons, gold, food, drink. This society is also strongly defined in terms of kinship; if a relative is killed then it is the duty of surviving relatives to exact revenge upon his killer: this could be either with his own life or with weregild, a reparational payment. Moreover, this is a world governed by fate and destiny. The belief that fate controls him is a central factor in all of Beowulf's actions which occur in the poem.

There have been many translations of this poem. One of the best and also most recent is by the poet Seamus Heaney.

Here is a small sample including the first mention in the poem of Beowulf himself.

After each line is the translation by Francis Gummere to modern English (though the translation is still hard to follow). Gummere's translation is now also out of copyright, and can be had at Project Gutenberg.

[332] oretmecgas æfter æþelum frægn:
... asked of the heroes their home and kin